Organizations often give mixed signals with innovation. There is a constant drumbeat to come up with the new ideas that will take a business forward. Yet, there is also resistance to change and pressure to maintain the status quo. It’s an innovation catch-22.
A few years ago, I attended an innovation brainstorm that rented out a room full of beanbag chairs to illustrate how unencumbered everyone should feel in coming up with ideas. Yet, to kick off the day, an executive stepped up to a podium to lecture about everything that was off the table, which turned out to be everything. It felt like a wet blanket, and created a disorienting message that we should be innovative, but not too innovative.
Beanbag chairs and squishy brainstorming toys aren’t enough to create a culture of innovation. We need to apply just as much creativity to what happens after the brainstorm as in the brainstorm itself.
(Marketoonist Monday: I’m giving away a signed print of this week’s cartoon. Just share an insightful comment to this week’s post by 5:00 PST on Monday. Thanks!)
Here’s another cartoon that I drew on this theme in 2011.
Doede says
November 24, 2014 at 3:34 amMany processes are driven by numbers/ figures. Being creative is asking people to step away from that. To think differently. That’s something that takes courage and effort. Unfortunately the one that has the final saying (CEO/ manager) is number-driven. I’ve seen it many times: the creative people step down, because they know big shifts will almost never come from bottom-up.
Neil says
November 24, 2014 at 4:44 amGreat marketoon and especially on point for us as a business right now.
We’re going through a significant change process internally and have heralded ‘innovation’ as one of our business values (which is easier said than done!).
We’ll share this marketoon and comments with our management team to help forge our new culture and encourage a genuine opening of minds to discover new ways meeting our business objectives.
Great point as always, keep ’em coming!
Allen Roberts says
November 24, 2014 at 4:56 amLooks just like a session I attended for a Federal Government department. They loudly and publicly extolled the virtues of innovation, privately treated anything that even resembled something new like poison.
They even had the sticky notes neatly arranged!! (mind-reader Tom)
Andrew Niven says
November 24, 2014 at 5:00 amThis resonates ! I worked for an agency that had a big UK bank as a client(pre-2008). At the end of a two-day brainstorming workshop, to generate a new communications positioning, delegates were asked to pick a favourite. The bank employees ignored all three of the new proposed positions and clustered around the old one. Asked why they didn’t like any of the new ones (after all, they had come up with them) they replied “Oh, we like them, it’s just that we know we’ll never be allowed to use any of them.”
Sourabh Mathur says
November 24, 2014 at 5:03 amI recently attended a 3 day conference on Innovation funded by the government and held in a premier B-School in India. While, all the speakers stressed on the science behind innovation and how innovation can be reared and promoted, almost all the examples and case studies were on how innovation happens at grass root levels.
Dave Sprogis says
November 24, 2014 at 5:35 amIn my experience in the private sector, the only time innovation was successful was when the team was pulled out of the day-to-day so that they had the time to execute. In an agile environment, horizons are shorter which means they fail faster if they are going to fail which means the risks and commitment are lower.
… but most organizations don’t seem to get that point – after all, why would you want to plan to fail?
Dave McLean says
November 24, 2014 at 5:51 amSo true- “wide open” brainstorming sessions inside a highly regimented corporate structure, more interesting in keeping things the same then in true innovation & breakthrough thinking. I see this DAILY – lets make it new, never seen before, but let’s not really change things.
Transformation, into the same thing……
Brad says
November 24, 2014 at 6:06 amLeadership sets the tone. Are we selling what we can make? Or is our goal to make what we can sell? You can never be too clear over the vision!
Ori Pomerantz says
November 24, 2014 at 6:14 amLarge organizations give a conflicting message because typically they don’t want to be innovative. They are dragged into innovation, kicking and screaming, by competitive pressures. The people who run large organizations tend to be very conservative, if they weren’t risk adverse they’d take their management skills and use them in a startup environment.
I assume this effect is even stronger in government, where typically there are protections against getting fired and less competition.
Matt Weisberger says
November 24, 2014 at 6:41 amRight on the mark with this one Tom.
Building on your cartoon, should the traditional brainstorm be questioned as a means of conjuring innovative ideas?
Not everyone is capable of turning a public conversation into insights on the spot. No matter how many bean bags present. People create on their own time, in their own way. Providing a safe environment for co-workers to share ideas is only as good as their willingness to communicate them.
How can we create a welcoming atmosphere for the introvert with a brilliant idea to come forward? Richard Wiseman surely has thoughts on this, but I still like the idea of getting the team together to talk something out.
Cathy says
November 24, 2014 at 7:30 amA few years back we were working with a largre computer hardware manufacturer to reengineer how they approached marketing. We had spent literally months analyzing their customer and prospect data and coming up with a whole new way to both extend and rebalance the mix. We ended up with a broader range of target audiences — but with a very different mix of tactics and timing — all for slightly lower budget. 🙂 There was one individual who served the role of nay-sayer for the large team we were working with. I still remember her consternation when we completed the final presentation and she could only say “I can’t find a reason to say no.”
Chet Frame says
November 24, 2014 at 7:43 amWorse still is sitting through a daylong Brainstorming session with norming processes and all of the soft stuff, and you never hear anything of the topics or outcomes again. All days out of the office are not equal.
Michael Hovey says
November 24, 2014 at 7:46 amWhen choosing an innovative product, service, process (adds incremental value to the customer of that product, service or process) it is important to recall that everything has a probability of failure. There are no guarantees in an ever-changing world, and there is risk with status quo – there is no playing it safe by not changing.
With status quo, the only way to go is usually down as your competition wants what you have and will provide added value to get it. To grow requires change in a direction that involves appreciably better (vs alternatives), “break throught the clutter”, value/performance etc. – typically innovative: new features, benefits, …
Ronette says
November 24, 2014 at 8:36 am‘Brainstorming’ sessions are a dime a dozen. Rarely, if ever, do I see the ideas from the sessions executed. Often they’re not even investigated further. An initial idea has to be nurtured, like an infant, protected and developed, kept away from bad influences until it’s ready to stand on it’s own. It takes time and effort and risk. Innovation suffers as much from the front-end ‘box’ as the lack of nurturing skills after ideation.
D Lapaire says
November 24, 2014 at 8:56 amThis is a fairly insightful cartoon. I think it hits the point exactly on how the current system has an inherent bias and a need to protect the status quo. Too innovative and the jobs of individuals may cease to exist. Failure to innovate is a fear based response and it often manifests at each and every stage of idea generation through to implementation.
Katie says
November 24, 2014 at 8:57 amYour cartoon hits on one of the things about creative thinking that resonates with me most: the expectation of and need for failure. Without embracing and celebrating failure, we can never really be innovative.
Marcel van Leeuwen says
November 24, 2014 at 11:24 amGreat cartoon outlining the lack of true creativity and innovation in many organizations. Don’t let this attitude hold you back. I believe that there’s a leader in everyone of us, just don’t be afraid to take the lead, explore your potential and to make your organization and this world a better place.
Susan says
November 24, 2014 at 11:45 amPeople in organizations often say they want creative out-of-the box ideas, but rarely actually want change. They want the reward of the successful innovation without the risk of the attempt. As Katie says, we need to embrace and celebrate failure as part of the innovative process and not be afraid of that possibility.
David Dickinson says
November 24, 2014 at 1:17 pmI have seen so much innovation die soon after being accepted as a great idea. Typically what I see stifling out of the box thinking is the requirement for great ideas to pass the business as usual tests before development – forecasts, projections, and financial analysis & tests etc. This is my definition of fitting it in the box and it is an innovation killer.
Successful innovation can result when as much, or more, creative thinking is done about ‘how to execute differently’. Unfortunately this is harder to do and is less glamorous than coming up with great ideas.
David Bacon says
November 24, 2014 at 2:27 pmLove the idea that we need to apply just as much creativity to what happens after the brainstorm as in the brainstorm itself. Even if brainstorms are “successful” more often than not the enthusiasm that created the ideas is not maintained when executing or developing ideas. Its like a morning after effect or buyers remorse, in the stark reality of the next day we regret the decisions of what has gone before.
Shelley Pringle says
November 25, 2014 at 6:39 amThis one really made me laugh. Someone hired me recently to help with marketing their business–only to decide a month later that they really liked things the way they are. I’m laughing, but it’s actually a bit sad.
Stefan says
December 2, 2014 at 2:17 amIts easy came up with ideers or be innovative, but its after this progress that often sucks. If you have an good ideer it isnt even sure that you get the money or creed for it. But guess who they pointed at or going to hang, if it turn out to be not so good.